


Driving Me Wild

by sapphicalexandra



Series: Seelie Court Kiss AU [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Established Relationship, First Date, Fluff, Forbidden Love, M/M, Parabatai Bond, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 22:50:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11930973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphicalexandra/pseuds/sapphicalexandra
Summary: Jace and Alec spend their second night as a couple in a mundane motel.





	Driving Me Wild

**Author's Note:**

> Here i come back again with another story set in the Seelie Court Kiss AU. If you want to get the context for this, you only need to read the first part of the verse, Your Deepest Desires, as this is set the night after its ending. If you don't care for context, just be ready for an entirely self-indulgent first ''''date'''', a fluffy, sexy (not full-on smut though, i can't write that), only slightly angsty love-fest set in a motel room ;) Beware of cheesiness and my long-winded poetics about the parabatai bond.  
> The title and lyrics are from the song Wild by Troye Sivan.  
> Enjoy!

_Trying hard not to fall_  
_On the way home_  
_You were trying to wear me down, down_  
_Kissing up on fences and up on walls_  
_On the way home_  
_I guess it's all working out, now_

Alec hated being among mundanes.

He could never help but feel  _entirely_  out of place, either as an invisible passerby, or as an abnormally tall, tattooed, unease-inducing person. In this case, he was the latter.

The foyer of the most unkempt place he had ever seen in his life – what mundanes called a  _motel_  – wasn’t exactly buzzing with life at that time of day (night, actually), but the few people who came to check in at the desk still regarded him, a shadow in the corner, with suspicion. Where the hell was  _Jace_?

But right as doubts were starting to take root in his mind – should he have  _agreed_  to this? – Alec felt a familiar presence try to sneak up on him, and a smile was already making its way on his face.

“Hello,  _stranger_ ,” came the unusually husky voice of his parabatai.

Alec rolled his eyes on principle, but the hair at the back of his neck still stood up, goose bumps tingling his skin, as those low tones  _reached_  him. When he turned around, his heart hopping in his chest, the look he regarded Jace with couldn’t help but be part  _fondness_ and part aching  _desire_.

“Hi,” he said back to him, more bashfully than he had meant it to be. To cover it up, he added, “You’re  _late_. Where the hell have you been?”

“I’ve got the goods.”

The smirk on Jace’s unfairly handsome face was contagious,  _distracting_ , and Alec barely managed to come up with another word, “ _Goods_?”

Jace raised his arm that was carrying an envelope bag. “Food! Don’t you want to eat? And some  _other_  things…”

“Food? I thought we would just…” Alec closed his mouth. What was he about to  _say_?

“Well, if you just want to have wild sex…”

“ _Shh_ , Jace–” Alec could already feel a blush rise hotly to his face, as he looked around nervously – but nobody was paying attention to them.

“…it’s fine by me, but I might need some food later,” Jace finished his tirade by widening his smirk.

Alec pushed his shoulder a little. “You  _jerk_. I just meant…”

“I know what you meant.” Jace, his smile not budging even a little bit, placed a hand on his arm, reassuringly. “ _Relax_ , Alec. We’re just here to not always have to look behind our backs, and to have some  _fun_.”

Alec didn’t know how much  _fun_  they could afford to have in such tense times, with Valentine being held in a cell that had already been breached…but since he had agreed to this, maybe he  _should’ve_  tried to switch his head off for a bit. He  _was_  being more nervous than he ought to. Jace had picked that shitty place exactly  _because_  it was shitty and as far away from the Shadow World as they could find. Nobody knew who they were, and they could truly be  _themselves_ , far more than they had been that entire day at the Institute, maneuvering around cameras and too many people.

Jace had been a little flirtier than Alec would’ve liked him to be that day – if he acted like that, how could he expect him to stay  _unaffected_ …it scared him how easily he had caved to some of his advances – but they had acted more or less normal, reconciled to others’ eyes, but as simple, platonic _parabatai_. (With the exception of Izzy, of course, who had read right through them...but he had admitted to nothing, plausible deniability and all.)

So when Jace had suggested they got away for the night…he couldn’t deny that  _nothing_  in the world would’ve made him  _not_  accept.

Alec had been on some dates, but none of them had been quite like  _this_. They had been nice, public, fancy outings. He didn’t care much about that stuff as a deal-breaker, he would’ve been fine with being in a  _cave_  with Jace, if it meant he could  _be_  with him…but he couldn’t be  _entirely_  sure that Jace wouldn’t get tired of the secrecy and inconvenience of it all, eventually. And what if Jace realized at some point that he had been wrong, after all, in thinking he felt  _that way_  about him? Would he wake up one day and find himself trapped, scared of what it’d be of their bond if they broke up, afraid of the consequences of going along with it when breaking the law wouldn’t have been  _worth_  it for him anymore? They had  _sworn_ , on that fated rooftop, before going back home, that they would do  _everything_  in their power to safeguard their parabatai bond above  _all else_ …still…

He was getting lost in his frantic thoughts, and Jace had noticed. “Alec, we don’t need to do this, if you don’t want,” he told him, the enthusiasm slowly fading from his face.

Jace was looking at him with those big, mismatched eyes, now vulnerable and unsure, yet still completely  _trusting_  in him. Jace hadn't shown any sign of regret…and that was how Alec repaid him? He was actively about to ruin their first  _romantic getaway_  – if one could call it that – with a fit of excessive worry. They had both  _chosen_  to be there, and they had to make the most out of it, not waste time like this!

Mentally berating himself, Alec sprung to action. He went to grip Jace’s arm, staring firmly into his eyes. “No, I  _want_  it – you have no idea how  _much_. I’m just overthinking things as usual, and ruining everything. You’re  _right_ , we should have some fun.”

And he finally  _let_  the anticipation pool into his belly, as he thought of how he would get to be in a room alone with  _Jace_ , with a proper  _bed,_  and no fear of discovery or anything of the sort for the entire night… Alec smiled, a  _real_  smile.

When Jace mirrored him, letting out a sigh of relief, Alec finally felt the last of his hesitation go away.

“Well then,” Jace said, eager again. “I have the key to our room. It’s on the third floor.”

He handed the key in question to Alec. Then…

“ _Race you_.”

And he was off.

Alec’s mouth fell open, but he allowed himself only  _one_  second to be outraged at having been played, before he started running after him. When he caught up to Jace, who was rapidly – even though not  _Shadowhunter_  rapid – climbing up the stairs, Alec didn’t even waste any time in taunting him with an  _Are we twelve now?_  because it was  _on_.

They must’ve really looked like a pair of twelve years old for the way they were laughing, yelling and trying to trip each other all the way to the third floor. Only, at that point, Alec didn’t go straight for their room…but rather chose to tackle Jace and push him against a wall.

Kissing him senseless was the sweetest victory.

Even Jace had to admit that, in a breathless voice, when they broke apart. “Nice one.”

His own move had turned on Alec a little, however, because he was already over their little game. The kiss that he had meant as a ruse had been anything but, and Alec kept hovering a few breathes away from Jace’s mouth even when he spoke, reveling in the heat of their bodies pressed together, already drunk on the taste of Jace’s tongue on his.

“Teaches you right,” he whispered, his voice impossibly low.

But as Jace raised his eyebrows and squared him up and down, taking in his debauched look, they both burst into laughter again. 

* * *

_Cause there's still too long to the weekend_  
_Too long till I drown in your hands_  
_Too long since I've been a fool, oh_

Jace had brought pretty much everything they would need. Pizza, sweets, very useful tools that’d come in handy later…

He could get used to this, sitting on the floor with Alec, while they both leaned on the bed behind them, nothing to do except enjoy each other’s presence and  _truly_  have a quiet, light moment just between the two of them. It had been so  _long_  since they’d spent time together without a mission to plan, or the world being about to end.

Like  _this_ , they could very well have been the only two people on Earth, and that was a thought Jace quite liked. Him and Alec had always been – and now more than ever – a world of their own, with everything else as mere background noise.

(Some of that background noise, however, was very…interesting, to say the least. Considering the place they were in, it wasn’t  _surprising_ , yet Jace had a lot of fun watching Alec try his best to act as if he didn’t hear it. Soon enough, he wouldn’t mind it that much – it was safe to say they would’ve  _added_  to it.)

The pizza vanished far too soon, as they wolfed it down over the  _looks_  they constantly and not-so-subtly sent the other's way. They could shift from amused to  _heated_  in the blink of an eye, and Jace couldn’t help but think that it was still all so  _surreal_. This was a normal thing that they always did together…but it was now basked in a heightened,  _bright_ light that made everything into something so much  _more_. Even the way Alec  _ate_  was mesmerizing.

“No  _way_ ,” Alec exclaimed at some point. He had been digging in the bag, and stumbled upon the treat Jace had hoped he would find.

“Your favorite, yeah,” Jace surmised.

His parabatai looked at him, and the  _glint_  in his eyes suddenly made Jace feel warm all over, for that stare - awed and gratefully  _joyful_  - was directed towards  _him_. He could’ve done  _anything_  to always keep it there. 

Alec proceeded to start chomping into his Milky Way with all the enthusiasm of a child. Coincidentally – or not – it was the very same snack that Alec had shared with him on the third day he’d been at the Institute, after he had found him crying on the rooftop. Jace to this day still thought of it fondly, and had rejoiced in finding it in the drug store.

The snack took an entirely different connotation, however, after Alec’s first bite caused him to close his eyes and  _moan_. Jace didn’t know if he had to be scandalized for the sake of his younger self at the  _thoughts_  he had then...until he decided that he didn’t care in the  _least_. He simply kept on staring at Alec’s lovefest with his chocolate bar with renewed intensity.

When Alec noticed him, he shoved him playfully, getting a bit red in the face, all the while licking his chocolate-covered lips as if that  _helped_. “Not a word,” Alec warned.

“Who,  _me_? I’m not saying anything.” But Jace’s smile was positively  _devilish_.

What could he say? After the kind of  _night_  that they’d had the previous night – one that still burned bright in Jace’s mind as the most world-shifting, eye-opening experience of his life – wasn’t he a little justified in being in a constant state of  _want,_ now that he knew what he could  _have_?

All day, the air  _itself_  had seemed to frizzle around them whenever they were near each other, and the sensation had bit at Jace’s skin as if it were a real static energy. It had kept him in a constant overhyped state, and his attempt at  _normalcy_  and  _impassivity_  had been that much harder as a result. That’s why he couldn’t regret the moment he had given in and dragged Alec into a closet, to ravish his lips like a starving man until Alec had pulled away with a jolt, his eyes dazed, and had made the wise decision to get away, not before shoving his tongue in his mouth one last time with a hissed curse.

There was no reason to rush things  _now_ , though, with the eventual gratification of their desires pretty much a _given_ , so Jace vowed to drag the night out and savor every small moment as best as he could.

He pulled the bag towards himself, and took another item from it, spraying the can of whipped cream right into his mouth.

“Seriously?” Alec chimed in, amused. “Did you really bring every trashy food in the city?”

“So what? I’ll burn the calories very  _easily_.” He added a wink for good measure.

Alec’s eye roll was predictable, but not the way he held his gaze after, a corner of his mouth quirking up. “Oh, yeah? And how is that? Are you  _doing_  something in particular?”

Jace’s heart skipped a bit, surprised, and extremely  _pleased_  that Alec was playing along – this was new, but all the more  _exciting_  for it.

“Well,  _you_ , of course,” Jace said, in a raspy voice he didn’t recognize as  _his_.

“And you’re  _so_  sure about it?” Alec’s voice was equally  _hoarse_ , and the shivers sent down Jace’s spine were positively  _riveting_.

“Pretty much,  _yes_.”

Unable to stay still a moment longer, Jace started moving, slowly, like a cat ready to pounce, closer and closer towards his parabatai...Alec followed his approach with a  _hungry_  look in his eyes, swallowing down noticeably, his lips inching apart, his eyes drooping, when Jace’s face was only a few breathes away from him…

“What the  _hell_!”

The fit of laughter that overcame Jace was abrupt and inevitable – Alec’s shocked reaction at receiving a spray of whipped cream right on his face being just  _too much_. He was doubled over, his whole body shaking  _painfully_.

“You  _ass_!” Alec burst out. He looked like a  _ghost,_ with his eyes covered, and only a black hole for where his mouth was hanging wide open.

“You should  _see_ –” Jace barely managed to say in between hiccups, “your  _face_ …”

He had to swallow down the rest of his amusement, however, because he was suddenly  _attacked_  by that white, dripping cream-face. Alec kissed him with a  _vengeance_ , but Jace couldn’t be too outraged at the sticky substance smearing all over his own face as a result. In fact, he welcomed that comeuppance far too  _eagerly_ , and, in the end, they had to bring the rest of their _fun_ to the bed.

Licking the cream away was simply  _delicious_.

* * *

_Never knew loving could hurt this good, oh_  
_And it drives me wild_  
_'Cause when you look like that_  
_I've never ever wanted to be so bad, oh_  
_It drives me wild_

Alec wanted to turn around, but he remembered that he  _couldn’t_  when he almost fell off the bed.

Jace laid behind him, holding him with an arm wrapped around him, their legs tangled together, and the warmth that encircled Alec was  _melting_  in the sweetest of ways. If it weren’t for his aching arm that had fallen asleep under him, he could’ve stayed in that position and  _reveled_  in it until the moment they’d had to wake up.

But as it turned out, he needed to  _move_. Except…

“Next time, can’t you find a room with a  _bigger_  bed?” he croaked out.

Jace groaned against the back of his neck, his breath making Alec – annoyingly enough – shiver  _heavenly_. “You said ‘find a shitty place’, and shitty places have small beds.”

“Seriously? They don’t have bigger beds in this entire thing?”

Alec wished his voice right then could be less dragged and  _blissful_ , so that his complaints didn’t sound entirely half-hearted. But it was hard  _enough_  to try and keep his head  _clear_  while Jace trailed wet kisses down his spine, as if the far-too-willing way he was leaning into the touch wasn't telling already.

“It was the only room left,” Jace murmured against his skin. “And to be perfectly honest, I don’t see the  _problem_.” He punctuated that statement by rubbing his body languidly against Alec, making him know exactly how  _much_  he was enjoying their position. “Plus, we didn’t exactly come here to  _sleep_ , did we? You weren’t complaining  _before_.”

Alec was biting his lower lip, rather  _forcefully_ , as Jace kept on grinding behind him and he had to  _fight_  to stifle the sounds threatening to burst out of him. He couldn’t give in  _just yet_.

“My  _feet_  don’t  _fit_  into the  _bed_ ,” he said. He moved the dangling feet in question for emphasis.

Jace, still completely unbothered, had reached the  _Deflect_  rune on Alec’s neck, while his left hand was sliding lower and lower on Alec’s torso... “It’s not my fault that you’re  _stupidly_  tall, but we could switch to the  _floor_ , if you prefer.”

“Is that so?” Jace’s hand was caressing his happy trail – maybe he could just let it  _go..._  – when Alec decided that he would  _not_ , and turned around instead, pushing all his weight on Jace. The latter gave out a yell, as he was successfully flung out of the bed. “Why don’t  _you_  stay on the floor, I’m  _good_ ,” Alec told him, before spreading his limbs, hiding his smirk into the pillow.

Jace looked rather un-classy, unceremoniously sprawled out on the floor – not that Alec would ever think to  _complain_  about the sight offered to him – as he looked up with a devious glint in his eyes. “Oh no, you’re  _not_.”

Alec was waiting for it, but he still protested loudly and fought back as hard as he could when Jace started dragging down the sheets covering him, bringing him along with them. “Don’t you  _dare_ –”

But to no avail. He was thrown on the floor, and a new fight immediately broke out, as they started rolling around, both trying to get the upper hand over the other. The sheets were in the way, making it that much more  _ridiculous_ , but, in the end, it was Jace who managed to pin Alec’s arms on the ground.

“Got you, you  _menace_ ,” he said. His cheeks must’ve hurt for how wide his smile was.

Alec wanted to retort, or try to break free, but, all of a sudden, it didn’t matter. He noticed how the air seemed to shift from light to  _electric_ , as they both realized exactly how close their faces, and bodies, were. Alec let himself drown into Jace’s impossibly bright eyes for a long moment, taking in – for what could’ve been the thousandth time already – the fact that this was  _real_ , the man, the  _naked_  man above him was truly  _Jace_ , and they had just basically  _sparred_ , not unlike so many hundreds of times before, but,  _this_  time, he wouldn’t have to swallow down all the things that Jace lighted up in him whenever he pinned him like that…he could instead lean up any minute and kiss his mouth, and have him kiss him  _back_  with equally matched fervor…

Alec turned that dream into a reality.

Jace didn’t disappoint, and kissed him exactly the way he wanted to be kissed. Jace’s lips were always much softer than they looked, and Alec was still surprised to find that out every time, as he took them in between his or tasted them with his tongue. Jace was still sugary, a fact that got to Alec’s head unexpectedly – he could  _never_  look at whipped cream the same again – and he couldn’t think anymore, he couldn’t stop his body from acting almost  _desperate,_  as he went to wrap his arms and legs around Jace and pressed him firmer against him. The way their labored breaths mingled together over their open-mouthed, bruising kisses was  _intoxicating_ , and the sounds that were escaping both of them weren’t a wonder. 

“ _Fuck_ , Jace, I’m going to come if we don’t stop,” Alec breathed out.

For the way they had started rutting frantically against each other wasn’t feasible if they planned on being more than a couple of horny teenager – not that Alec had ever acted like this when he  _was,_  or that he could bring himself to  _dislike_  it. That’s why when Jace growled, “ _No fucking chance_ ,” against his neck, and gave such a deep thrust that made him see  _stars_ , Alec had no problems ignoring his own words. Instead he pulled Jace’s mouth back on  _his_ , biting at it as he closed his eyes and held on even tighter, letting their bodies move together completely unrefined, until  _fireworks_  exploded all through him in vivid and brilliant colors.

He didn’t know what it was, if it was really them being parabatai and always perfectly in tune with each other, that always caused them to come apart together. Either way,  _that_  was what happened most times, and  _each_  time had them blank out for too many, unbelievable moments than it would be normal, caught in a higher plane of existence where their entire beings vibrated and resounded like played instruments.  _Never_  did their connection with each other reach a similar peak, when they couldn’t tell  _where_  exactly they, and their feelings and sensations, were separated, and  _never_  did Alec understand more what it meant to share his soul with Jace’s. Truly, if every parabatai only knew…

The fading of that blinding sensation through calmer, spread-out aftershocks, had them then slowly come down, back into the world…and there was that  _other_  moment, as Alec reopened his eyes and saw the other man above him, when he felt overwhelmed all over again, and he closed the distance, kissing Jace in a whole new light and  _appreciation_  for everything that he was and  _they_  were, until the jelly-like feeling in his limbs made him collapse on the floor, exhausted.

Jace followed him, hiding his face against his chest, and Alec could feel the way his mouth was curved up in a smile, and that he was laughing softly. Alec could’ve started floating, for how light he felt.

That night turned out to be one of the longest of his life, one  _firework_  after the other burning it in his memory indefinitely. He would’ve felt embarrassed if he ever stopped to  _think_  of how  _dirty_  they got, of how many  _times_  he let Jace take him apart, of how many  _ways_  he got Jace to scream, even louder than the neighbors he’d had to overhear before with such scorn, and of how  _much_  he always ended up wanting more _, more, more_ …

“Let’s take a  _bath_ ,” were the first words said by Jace in a while, muffled since his face was pressed into the pillow.

Alec had a front row view of the  _Equilibrium_  rune on the back of Jace’s neck, as he still tried to slow down his breathing, sprawled out over his parabatai – the image of Jace on his hands and knees, writhing around him,  _still_  too vivid. It took him a moment to process that statement, then another before responding, “Yeah,” as he chuckled lightly.        

* * *

  _We’re alike you and I_  
_Two blue hearts locked in our wrong minds_  
_So can we make the most out of no time?_  
_Can you hold me?_  
_Can you make me leave my demons and my broken pieces behind?_

The bed couldn’t fit two people comfortably, but apparently the  _tub_  did. What a strange world.

It was, admittedly, a  _tight_  fit, and their legs were so tangled together that Jace wondered if they would ever manage to get out…but the thought wasn’t exactly unpleasant. He quite enjoyed lazing about in hot water pressed closely to his hot –  _lover_?  _boyfriend_? both words didn’t seem  _right_  enough – parabatai.

The motel provided fancy soaps – since it  _was_  the kind of place where people went for  _one_  reason in particular, it seemed only right that they’d up their  _romance_  game, if nothing else – and Jace hadn’t wanted to waste anything. It might’ve been truly  _late_  in the night at that point, but taking a bubble bath was ridiculously one of the best ideas they’d had so far (and they’d had  _plenty_  of good ideas). Jace was captivated by it and  _baffled_  at the same time.

He didn’t  _do_  this sort of things. Having steamy sex in an alley,  _that_  was more like him. With Clary, he’d  _had_  some emotional,  _sweet_  moments, but until now he had never understood the mundane desire to – shower someone with their favorite sweets, or tell them every time they look at you how much you don’t want them to stop, or have them hold you until your sweats mingled together, and not being bothered by it. The fact that in any other circumstance he would’ve felt the constant need to reassert his masculinity while being surrounded by bubbles, and he would’ve tried to  _hide_  how much he found them  _entertaining_ , while right now he couldn’t give a  _damn_ …was  _something_  he couldn’t quite put into words.

So he didn’t try to, and cupped his hands instead, taking a handful of bubbles and smearing them all over Alec’s chin, making him a proper Santa Clos (or whatever that guy was called) beard. Alec crinkled his nose, but he simply gathered his own bubbles, and used them to shape Jace’s hair into a maw-hawk.

“Not my  _hair_!”

And it was  _on_  again. They were both laughing way too hard as they splashed each other viciously for way too long. (Had they  _ever_  laughed so much in their lives? It didn’t seem so). Jace couldn’t  _believe_  how easily they reverted to acting like kids with only minimum prompting, yet here they were. It felt  _amazing_.

Eventually, they calmed down, sinking deeper into the now cooling water. For how much Jace enjoyed their time  _together_  – and oh,  _did_  he enjoy it…he would’ve been shocked if he ever felt quite like  _that_  with anybody else, or if he would ever  _want_  to be with anybody else – he also couldn’t help but relish in these quite moments of simple  _togetherness_.

He was becoming a clichéd love-wrecked being,  _that_  was the truth of the matter. Right now, he thought he could’ve spent the rest of his  _life_  doing the most basic and silly things with Alec. And that  _terrified_  him beyond any measure, he couldn’t deny that even if he tried. Alec  _knew_ , but he didn’t expect him not to be, instead he was  _there_  with him, holding his hand, and looking at him as if – as if he was his entire  _world…_ and the power they both implicitly acknowledged that they  _had_ , to potentially lead the other to his downfall, didn’t  _matter_  in the end. It truly didn’t.

Jace bent forward and kissed the knuckles on Alec’s hand,  _one_  by  _one_. He took his time with it, savoring the silence and the richness of the moment, with every kiss feeling like a  _promise_. When he raised his head again and stared at Alec – all the depth of his affection swimming behind his hazel eyes, the sharpness of his lineaments mitigated by the softness and  _intensity_  of his expression – Jace breathed in deep, feeling truly  _calm_ for the first time in a long while. And when he moved forward, awkwardly maneuvering around Alec’s long legs, until he finally managed to place his head over Alec’s chest, listening intently to his beating heart, he closed his eyes in bliss. 

* * *

_You make my heart shake bend and break_  
_But I can't turn away_  
_And it's driving me wild_  
_You're driving me wild_

The alarm went off, and Alec’s hand shot up to stop it, peering at the phone’s screen through one opened, bleary eye.  _6:00 am_.

A usual Institute day started around 8:00 am, and they’d had to be sure to be there well before that. Yet, they couldn’t have slept for more than a couple of hours at  _most_ …so both his and Jace’s groans were more than justified.

“Fuck,” Jace said.

“Mmmh,” Alec agreed, huffing in frustration.

If there was  _one_  downside to going out for the night like that, was the need to be back in the Institute before people noticed that their Head and his parabatai were both absent. The news of his break up with Magnus had traveled fast, so he couldn’t use  _that_  excuse (not that he would), and the only option remaining was making sure nobody realized they were missing in the first place.

Getting up still wasn’t going to be  _pleasant_. 

Jace, as a matter of fact, only snuggled up to him further, in denial till the end, and Alec had to admit that the whole bed predicament wasn’t so  _bad_. Jace was basically laying half on top of him, and Alec found that if his arms were free, he enjoyed the closeness, the contact of their warm skins, the weight of Jace’s body over his, very much  _indeed_.  

He let out a sound of gratification as Jace brushed his lips against his neck and hugged him even tighter. _Just a moment longer, only one_ , he told himself.  

“We need to get up,” Alec eventually felt the need to remind him, as well as himself.

“Mmmh,” was Jace’s only reply.

Alec sighed. If they didn’t get up soon, they’d both fall asleep again, he could feel that in the way his eyes were already shutting down, too pasty to open up again, and his brain getting too foggy to form a coherent thought. Groaning louder than before, he squeezed Jace’s hip, he left a few kisses on his head, then he slipped out of the bed, ignoring Jace’s protest.

“If you’re not up in two minutes, I’m flipping the mattress,” Alec warned him, only half kidding.

Now that he  _was_  up, it wasn’t all that terrible. After all, in that moment, nothing could  _really_  bring him down. He was still too thrilled, too giddy, too at  _peace_  with the world to resent the inevitability of early mornings. He went into the bathroom and the cold water he splashed on his face helped clear his head just that tad more that he needed. And he felt like he  _could_  face the entire day, direct Valentine’s transfer, work alongside Jace without blushing  _too_  much or be  _too_  obvious about his complete stupid-ness about him.

When he got back into the room, Jace was thankfully up and already half-dressed. He was staring outside the window at the street below them, and Alec approached him from behind, circling his bare torso, placing a kiss on his shoulder before laying his chin there.

“What are you thinking about?” Alec asked him in a murmur.

Jace’s hands went up to hold his, as he leaned into him. “Nothing, really. I’m just wondering what it’d be like if we were just…two normal mundanes like everyone here.”

People were already leaving the motel, cars were starting up, and the place was truly quiet for a change. “If they come here I guess it’s not that easy even for them, being with someone openly.”

Jace sighed softly. “I guess not.”

Maybe there was _really_ another universe where they didn’t need to stay separated during the day, instead they walked together, hand in hand, under the light… still, what they had _here_ was more than Alec had ever _dared_ to hope. Jace _loved_ him in all the ways a person could be loved, he _told_ him that with every smile, every touch, every look, every kiss, every _thing_ that he sacrificed and put on the line for him. And Alec would never take it for granted…he didn’t believe that it would ever come a day that he would _not_ spend still marveling about the favorable alignment, or whatever it _was_ , that had made all this – being able to hold Jace to his chest and kiss the side of his neck casually, meaningfully, tenderly – into a _reality_.

For what if one or both of them hadn’t gone to the Seelie Court that day? Alec’s heart felt heavier at the mere thought. Cause in that case, the love he felt for Jace would’ve stayed in the cage he had locked it in oh so long ago, without the possibility it had _now_ to freely expand itself in every crevice of his being, pulsing with renewed _life_ , engulfing him to the point that he felt _full_ with it to bursting. _Never_ had it felt that way, because it had  _never_ had this freedom, not even before they became parabatai. And he couldn’t help but wonder – would it have died, eventually, like a bird, if it had kept on being uncared for or unfed? Or would it have been more like a small, steady, eternal flame destined to never taste the air of the outside world? Alec preferred the second option, for how painful; for a world where he didn’t love Jace was _unthinkable_.

He was getting lost in depressing thoughts _again_. Mad with himself, determined to hold on to the cheerful feeling he had woken up with, he gently spun Jace around until they were facing each other. Jace raised his hands to go hold his face, caressing it gently, looking at him with intensity in his peculiar eyes, and Alec was truly tired of how damn near _tragic_ their love was. Unyielding, but in the _unluckiest_ of situations. Unrequited, or thinking it was unrequited, when they could’ve done something with it; requited when it was literally a _crime_ to act on it. They were truly the epitome of bad timing.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Alec tried to let _out_ the last of that misery with a deep exhale, before bending down to kiss Jace with nothing but thoughts of the _present_. They were _together_ , they would make it work, they would be okay, _that_ was all that mattered.

They kissed for a while, knowing full well that it’d be a miracle if they managed to do it again anytime soon, not before it was dark, at least. It was a slow, unassuming kiss, yet deep,  _sweeping_ , and full of everything that they wouldn’t say.  _I’ll miss you. I love you._ When they broke apart, Alec’s smile was genuine, and he felt light again.

At the point of going, making sure they hadn’t forgotten anything, a thought occurred to Alec. “We – we need  _rules_.”

Jace, putting on his jacket, arched an eyebrow. “What?”

“Rules! If we’re really,  _really_  doing this, we can’t just  _wing_  it. We need a proper  _code of conduct,_  or  _something_ – a comprehensive set of rules to go by…”

Jace looked ready to burst into laughter. “Are you serious? Wait, you  _are_ ,” he gazed at Alec’s wide eyes for a moment, “okay,  _okay_ , a comprehensive set of rules, go on.” 

Alec hadn’t thought beyond that, so he searched his brain for the right way to go. “First of all,  _no_  kissing at the Institute.” 

“Seriously? Oh c’mon, Alec!”

“Think about it! You can’t just drag me into a closet and do whatever you want, whenever you want, and neither can _I_. That’s just too distracting! And obvious, and dangerous, and  _maddening_ …” he moved closer towards Jace, placing his hands on his hips, “You  _know_  I can’t resist you. We can’t afford to lose our heads and lose  _everything_  as a result…”

Jace’s lips were ridiculously pouty, and Alec couldn’t keep himself from kissing them quickly – this was already too  _hard_ , damn it. Jace, however, looked sedated, and he nodded, sighing.

“I’m not saying  _never_ , okay?” Alec went on. 

Jace raised his eyes, his interest piqued. “Oh yeah?”

“ _Yeah_. Just, not during the  _day_ , or anywhere but our rooms, with doors properly  _locked,_  and the proper runes activated. Sounds like a plan?”

Jace smirked. “Sounds like a plan. Anything else,  _sir_?”

Alec fought a smile. Then he straightened his head, and said in his most authoritarian voice, “I’ll tell you when I think about it.” Getting serious again, he added, “Oh, and let’s not get to the Institute at the same time. It's better if I go first, probably.”

“Okay, I’ll just go for a jog, then.”

“Don’t be late for the briefing, though.”

Jace’s lips only stretched further. “I wouldn't dream of it,  _boss_.”

Alec stuck his tongue out at him, laughter already bubbling in him for what felt like the thousandth time that night. “Well then, _soldier_ , I guess I’ll go.”

“Yeah, you should go.”

Alec couldn’t tell who dived in first, but their lips collided at some point in the middle.

 _One last kiss_  turned into two, then three, then four, then Alec forcefully removed his lips away from a fifth kiss. He turned around, reaching the door before he could think about it, looking back only once to smile at Jace, who hadn’t moved and was watching his retreat looking way too good for Alec to bear staring at him for more than one second. Then he closed the door behind him, exhaling loudly. 

What a  _night_. He felt like pinching himself only to make sure it was still all  _real_.

It appeared to be, and Alec already couldn't wait for a repeat. He had a skip in his steps as he made his way back to the Institute.

 

**Author's Note:**

> "a clichéd love-wrecked being" is from this great poem http://bedlamsbard.tumblr.com/post/99199496248/first-he-touches-you-and-you-light-on-fire-your
> 
> the hilarious imagery of a small bed can be traced to this http://dnteverdoubtme.tumblr.com/heat-wave thanks guys! keep the threads coming! 
> 
> Feedback or whipped cream in the face?


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